This literature review examines existing research comparing the performance of Windows 7 Professional and Windows XP Professional. It surveys both quantitative benchmark studies — using tools such as PCMark05, Passmark Performance Test 6.1, Geekbench, and Sunspider — and qualitative, observation-based comparisons. Key findings reveal that XP frequently outperformed Windows 7 in raw benchmark scores, while qualitative reviewers generally favored Windows 7 for usability and visual experience. The review also addresses security improvements in Windows 7, including enhanced memory protection, Data Execution Prevention, and USB encryption. The paper concludes by noting the limited body of literature available on this specific comparison and identifying methodological considerations for further research.
Choosing the correct operating system for the task and setting in which it will be used is one of the most important decisions an IT professional has to make. The functional differences between Windows 7 Professional and Windows XP Professional can be found by reading product literature. However, when it comes to performance, one must consult those who have installed the software and perhaps tested it. The following literature review examines existing literature, as well as the methods used to compare these two operating systems.
A side-by-side comparison published in PCMag conducted a performance test of the two operating systems. At that point, Windows XP had been available for nearly a decade, yet it remained a popular operating system. Surprisingly, Windows XP outperformed Windows 7 in many categories. The study was conducted using a clean install of both operating systems on a 1.73 GHz Toshiba Satellite M45-S260 laptop with 1 GB of RAM and a 100 GB hard drive (Muchmore, 2009). This system exceeded the minimum requirements for both operating systems. The side-by-side comparison also included Vista, but those results are not considered for the purposes of this review.
In addition to the operating system, the researcher installed Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate, Windows Live Essentials (including Mail, Movie Maker, Photo Gallery, and Messenger), and Picasa 3.5. The researcher reasoned that testing a PC with no programs installed would not accurately reflect how a system performs in a real-world setting. Startup and shutdown times were then tested for each OS, and a series of benchmark tests was run three times each, with results averaged for the final presentation.
Muchmore found that Windows XP started fastest at boot, and noted that the test machine had been built during the era when XP was dominant and the other two operating systems did not yet exist. Newer machines may start faster because they were built with those newer systems in mind. The results of this test are therefore most relevant to users upgrading from XP on an older machine, rather than purchasing a new system. Most users in this scenario will be upgrading on existing hardware, according to the article.
Muchmore's results showed that XP booted nearly ten seconds faster than the other two systems. Whether this is significant depends on user preferences; from a practical standpoint, the difference is not large. On shutdown times, Windows 7 was the fastest, finishing nearly eight seconds ahead of XP. XP outperformed Windows 7 in Picasa video encoding by nearly four seconds.
The researcher then used the PCMark05 benchmark to run eleven system tests, each representing a specific type of PC usage. These benchmarks covered hard disk access, 3D and graphics physics rendering, webpage rendering, file decryption, multithreaded video, audio, text editing, and image decompression. Each test produces a performance index score. Using this index, XP outperformed Windows 7 in almost every category. The test suggested XP would be better for running games, though the author noted that newer games requiring DirectX 10 or 11 will not run on XP.
Some newer software will not run on XP at all — Windows Live Movie Maker being one example. It would be unrealistic to expect software developed long after the operating system's release to be compatible. Therefore, users interested in newer software should not consider XP. The researcher also used Geekbench, a test developed by Primate Labs that includes a number of proprietary hardware-intensive tests. Improvements were observed from XP to Windows 7 in these results (Muchmore, 2009).
The author then tested all three systems using the Sunspider benchmark. The most notable difference was in JavaScript performance, where Windows 7 dramatically outperformed the other two. Running Firefox 3.5 on all three systems showed that Windows 7 was a striking improvement over the others. However, performance was considerably poor on Firefox 3.6 across all three platforms (Muchmore, 2009).
"Observation-based user experience comparisons"
"DEP, memory protection, and firewall upgrades"
This literature review found that very few side-by-side comparisons exist between Windows XP Professional and Windows 7 Professional. Only sources that compared the professional versions of both systems were considered. The analyses could be divided into quantitative and qualitative categories. Quantitative assessments provided technical information useful for those who wish to base their selection on empirical data, and were primarily targeted at technically oriented professionals or consultants. Qualitative comparisons, also identified in the review, were better suited to the average user and written in a manner accessible to non-technical consumers. A third type of comparison — opinion-based reviews that cited no empirical methods and drew largely on the experiences of friends or coworkers — was excluded from this review, as such sources were not considered to contribute meaningfully to the academic knowledge base.
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